152 SOUTHERN BORDER OF CENTRAL COAL FIELD. 



quite a number of the characteristic fossils of the Carboniferous period : Spir- 

 ifer cameralus, Productus nebrascensis, Myalina perattenuata, Orthoceras, Fusulina 

 cylindrica, Hemipronites crassus, Discina convexa, Chaetetes milleporaceus. 



Over the entire surface of the valley here there is found a bed of conglom- 

 erate, the gravel of which comes from the surrounding strata. 



At the head of Dry Creek we came to an exposure of limestone capped by 

 a shale and a heavy-bedded sandstone. The same limestone as seen at the 

 crossing on Dry Creek appears also in the bed of Camp Creek, and two miles 

 further on, after going up a slope from Camp Creek, there is a hill 80 feet 

 high made up of clay beds, limestones, and sandstones. In a bed of clay 

 about half the height of the hill are a great number of Campophyllum tor- 

 quium. 



Mr. J. "W. Gibson has put down several prospecting holes in this vicinity 

 south of the hills, and in the valley of Little Bull Creek. The only shaft open 

 at present is about one mile east of the creek, and is west of the principal out- 

 crop. This shaft is 48 feet deep. The last 3 feet was through a stratum of 

 coal; the coal is reported as 24 inches thick at the bottom, then 2 inches of 

 slate, and then 10 inches of coal. In a bank of the creek 400 feet northeast 

 of the shaft the coal crops out about 8 feet above the bed of the creek. Here 

 the upper seam of coal is 20 inches thick and the lower seam 8 inches thick, 

 with a thin seam of slate between. One-fourth of a mile northeast, and on 

 the east side of the creek, the coal again outcrops, showing about the same 

 conditions. The dip of the strata at this place is about 30 feet to the mile 

 to the northwest. 



There are several outcrops in the vicinity of the coal on the east side of 

 the creek. In places the seam is not more than 4 inches thick. The coal 

 has over it, clay 6 feet, shaly limestone 1 feet, and a rough, thick sandstone. 

 Below the coal is a bed of fireclay 2 feet thick. In the bed of the creek, 

 just east of the shaft and below the fireclay, is a bed of sandstone. 



The Williamson shaft is located one mile northwest of the town of Wal- 

 drip. A few years since a company, at a heavy expense, put down this shaft, 

 8x8 feet, to the depth of 160 feet, and timbered it from top to bottom. 



It is reported that a bed of coal only twelve inches thick was found, that 

 it dipped to the southwest, and was eighteen inches thick at the south side. 

 The shaft has been abandoned and is nearly full of water. From the mate- 

 rial taken out I think it to be the same as that found on the east side of the 

 river. 



The Chaffin mine is two miles southeast of this shaft. The coal has been 

 mined here to some extent at different times. The seam is twenty inches 

 thick and is immediately below a shaly limestone and very much resembles 

 the coal found west of Trickham, in Dunson and Kingsbury's pasture, and I 



